Part 1: An Eye on Educreations

My District directed the Library Media Specialists (LMS) to update our curriculum maps to include more technology skills. I am not saying that we are teaching typing, we leave that to Business Computer and Information Technology teachers, but I am saying that we looked at skills that are identified in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the PA Common Core Standards (PA CC) that librarians could deliver.

Here is an example. Both the CCSS and the PA CC want elementary students to record their voice and add visual displays when appropriate as stated in the standards that follow. The questions was “How do we do this?” with all of the options that PCs and iPads have.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.5 Create audio recordings of stories or poems; add drawings or other visual displays to stories or recounts of experiences when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

PA Core Standards ELA

1.5 Speaking and Listening

CC.1.5.3.F Create engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate fluid reading at an understandable pace; add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts or details.

This year our District provided a cart of 30 iPads for each elementary library, so we, the Lead Position for Technology Education and some of the Elementary LMS explored iPad apps that would be easy enough for our second graders to use to make a video clip. Some of us took the Eduspire: IPads in Education course at the Bucks County Intermediate Unit this summer, which I can highly recommend to anyone who is working with iPads in the classroom. We did our homework. After looking at many options, we decided that Educreations is perfect, not too complicated, not too simple, and it is free!

Samples:

See how our 2^nd graders are using Educreations! You’ll need to create an Educreations account, but you can do this very simply in less than one minute!

http://www.educreations.com/course/lesson/view/intro-to-educreations-flanly/16199968/

Using a video for instruction ensures that all students hear the same information. This next video was used to introduce Safari Montage that is now accessible from home for our teachers and students.

http://www.educreations.com/course/lesson/view/searching-for-a-safari-montage-video/16199967/

Please understand that the above samples were first attempts, created quickly just for the purpose of demonstrating possibilities. Translated – I need more practice to have a smoother delivery. But even with a less than perfect delivery, I am hearing that the students are “mesmerized” when the Elementary LMS are using Educreations for instruction. Also, I use less than perfect samples to challenge students to find ways that the video can be improved. They love to find and point out my weaknesses.

The videos created by students are the most fun to watch. I wanted to have samples of student work for you to view but ran into issues with permissions and time. The ones I have seen created by our 2^nd graders are wonderful. They cannot just follow the directions, they have to start getting all creative and using colors and they start styling. Their strengths start shining through and you just have to smile!

Educreations has examples available for all levels: http://www.educreations.com/browse/

The Limits:

We have discovered that the recording feature is a once and done. Meaning you cannot edit the recording. You cannot save a recording half-finished. You can record a slide, pause the recording and then record the next slide. You can start over and redo the recording without losing the visual content. The inability to edit the recording can make problems for perfectionists. They might run out of time.
Students need to be 13 years old or older to set-up an account without parental permission.
If your entire class is recording at the same time, you can hear a lot of background noise.
If you want to post an Educreations video to your website, you will need to select public instead of private when you save it. An embed code will then be available to you.
Once you close the app on an iPad, all your content is gone unless you have clicked done and have saved the completed video. No more editing can be done once you have saved the video.

The Solutions:

Students need to plan, not a bad thing. Students need to write a script before recording and rehearse.
Students need to have a parental permission form signed. Our District has developed one that covers apps.
If the project requires more than 5-6 slides, I recommend thinking about subdividing the content into segments, such as; Part 1 and Part 2. This way a student can save the work finished during the first period/class and work on Part 2 the next day. More planning!
Students can move into the hall or go to other areas to record or you can limit the number of groups recording at any one time.
Students can record 5 seconds of silence for each slide and then save. They can add ideas verbally when presenting the video or all information is presented visually. This works especially well when using Educreations for an assessment.
Educreation videos can be saved as Private.

Our teachers have been using Educreations to create instructional video clips, record self-written songs that support the curriculum and are asking students to create a video to demonstrate understanding for assessment purposes. An 8^th grade science teacher assessed his students’ understanding of Kepler’s three Laws of Planetary Motion by asking them to create a 3 slide video. Each slide explained a Law. Students could type, draw a diagram or both. This eliminated the option of guessing either A, B, C, or D.

During Poetry Month (April), our 2^nd and 3^rd graders will be using Educreations to create an audio recording of a poem. Images and the text of the poem will be used for visual content. Hopefully by this time, students will be able to focus on reading fluently and pacing their reading since they have had other opportunities during this year to learn how to use the app.

Educreations has some great workflow solutions. The videos can be posted on Edmodo, your school website or shared with a link. The icon appears as an import option in places like Blendspace. One of our LMS has created Educreations classes and has all of her 2^nd grade students use her account to save their work. Creating classes can be done using the Educreations website. Older students can enter your class code, create their own account (once) and save their video to the class account. This works exceptionally well for grading purposes as all of the videos for that class are in one spot.

One last observation I have to offer is that most of our students think making an Educreations video is easy and enjoyable! They ask to “do that again.” You can hear the excitement in their voices on their recordings. They go home and make them for fun. It just doesn’t get better than that!

Here is some information quoted directly from the Educreations website that you may find helpful:

Can my students create accounts on Educreations?

Your students can create their own accounts on Educreations, either by signing up on our website or from within the Educreations iPad app. In order to register via the iPad app, they will need to be using version 1.2.6 or newer.

If you would like to have students automatically enrolled in your course when they sign up, you will need to distribute your course code to your students. Find the course code on the “Students” tab of your course on our website. You will see a link and a code. If your students register via this link, your course code will be pre-filled for them in the sign up form, so they won’t have to remember it. Otherwise, you can simply pass out the course code and your students will be prompted to enter the code during the sign up process.

Your students can also enroll in your course after they sign up by clicking on the “subscribe to course” after logging into our website.

Tip: Students only need to register once for an Educreations account. After registering, they can enroll in any course for which they have the registration link.

Additional Information from Educreations:

http://www.educreations.com/faq/

http://www.educreations.com/privacy/

Children’s Personal Information

Educreations collects limited Personal Information from students (“Children’s Personal Information”), but only where that student’s school, district, and/or teacher has contracted with Educreations to collect Children’s Personal Information from students for the use and benefit of the learning environment. Children under 13 years old are not allowed to create an account without a parent or guardian’s permission. We recommend that minors over the age of 13 ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet.

We require schools, districts, and/or teachers to obtain parental consent from students’ parents before collecting any such Children’s Personal Information. If you are a student, please do not send any Children’s Personal Information about yourself to us, other than what we request from you when you sign up for the Service. In the event that we learn that we have collected Children’s Personal Information from a student without parental consent being obtained by his or her school, district, and/or teacher, or if we learn a student has provided us Children’s Personal Information beyond what we request when he or she signs up for the Service, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that a student may have provided us Children’s Personal Information beyond what is requested when signing up for the Service, or that a student’s school, district, or teacher has not obtained parental consent, please contact us.

Hereinafter, references to “Personal Information” shall apply to personal information of individual Site users who are not student registrants. References to “Children’s Personal Information” shall only apply to personal information of student users of the Site. General references to “information” shall apply to all users.